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MEETINGS

Meetings of the Broseley Local History Society are

held on the first Wednesday of each month at 7.30pm

at the Broseley Social Club, High Street, unless

otherwise announced. Car parking is available at the

back of the Club.

Members are requested to be seated by 7.30pm to allow

our speakers a prompt start.

Visitors are welcome but are asked to give a donation

towards Society funds.

PROGRAMME

7 Jun

1 Jul

6 Sep

4 Oct

Further details from Neil Clarke 01952 504135.

NEW MEMBERS

The Society would like to welcome the following new

members:

Janice Stephenson, Wrockwardine Wood

Ruth Crofts, Broseley

Carolyn Molyneux, Broseley

Sarah Bonner, Broseley

NEWSLETTER

Newsletter of the Broseley Local History Society

INCORPORATING THE WI LKINSON SOCIETY

MAY 2017

CONTENTS

Programme

New Members

Previous Meetings

Iron Sculptures

Motor Racing at Coalport

Boxing Tournament

Christmas Quiz Answers

Where’s Welly?

What’s On?

Mailbox

Summer walk in Apley Park

Annual Outing: Quarry Bank Cotton Mill,

Styal, Cheshire

The Birmingham Brass Industry, Vin

Calcutt

WW1 Postcards, Diana Clarke

Page 1

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 5

Page 5

Page 6

Page 6

Page 7

Page 7

If you want to book a place on the trip

to Quarry Mill, then fill out and return

the form on the last page of the

February edition of Newsletter

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PREVIOUS MEETINGS

Ray Farlow’s Postcard Collection

Janet Doody writes –

A larger than average audience gathered for this much

awaited evening and was not disappointed; using just a

fraction of his collection Ray took us on a journey

through the East Shropshire coalfield area prior to the

development of the Telford New Town.

The tour began as something of a personal journey for

Ray starting on his home territory of Dawley, with

photographs of the main street, showing the Captain

Webb Memorial, which has over the years completed

its own tour of New Street! And including the Park and

Church, Holy Trinity, which often confuses family

historians as it is sited adjacent to Little Dawley, whilst

the Thomas Telford designed church of St. Leonard’s

Malinslee is probably closer to Dawley centre. From

there we travelled through Horsehay, past what was

once the Horsehay Works (through many changes of

name) now diminished to just the office buildings, into

Doseley, and the parish church containing the resting

place of the Shropshire Giant, William Ball; steaming

on through Malinslee and Stirchley Railway stations to

Market Street, Oakengates. Along the Holyhead Road

to one of the many sites belonging to the once huge

global corporation of the Lilleshall Company, followed

another once large industrial complex of Sankey’s

Castle Car Works in Hadley.

From here we travelled south to Madeley and Park

Avenue showing the original location of the War

Memorial; another that over recent years has sought

sanctuary in a few locations! A very early illustration

of Kemberton Colliery Mine Rescue Team was next,

then the Hay Farm, now the Great Hay Hotel and down

the Hay Inclined Plane. Moving south over the river via

the Coalport and Jackfield Memorial Bridge, passing

Harry Reynold’s Fun Fair with its swing-boats and on

upstream to the Haynes Memorial or “Free” Bridge,

on the way glancing right to Madeley Wood and my

own infant and junior school, now housing.

And so to Broseley passing the said too be haunted

“Red Church” through Church Street past The Lady

Forrester Hospital with recovering WW1 soldiers and

just glancing at the Foresters Arms, no time to pause or

listen to the wonderful photograph of the Broseley

Orchestra – was your ancestor a member?

Ray has amassed well over 6000 postcards relating to

Shropshire and is still collecting; some are unused but

many have been posted and sometimes contain

intriguing messages. Comments from the audience

included the often bizarre choice of subject for the

cards, especially those images relating to industrial

topics; not something that would produce a profitable

print-run today. However, around the time of the First

World War few had cameras, photographs in

newspapers did not appear widely until the 1930’s, so

locally produced images were exciting something

perhaps we find hard to understand today.

There is no doubt that Ray will have to sift through his

collection once again, for I am sure like myself you all

look forward to another presentation of Shropshire

through old postcards

Annual Wilkinson Lecture

John Wilkinson and the Ironbridge by David de Haan

By the second half of the eighteenth century

commercial and industrial activities on both sides of the

Severn Gorge in the Coalbrookdale area were rapidly

increasing. The nearest bridge was 2 miles away at

Buildwas so a ferry was used for people and goods to

cross over the river. This proved to be dangerous,

especially in winter and unreliable in dry summer

periods. In 1774 discussions between industrialists, iron

masters and land owners began to take place about the

possibility of building a bridge spanning the river in the

Gorge. On September 15th 1775 the first formal meeting

regarding the project was held here in Broseley.

Pictures courtesy of Ray Farlow and Shropshire Star

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Wilkinson was involved from the beginning and had

previously had discussions with his friend, Thomas

Farnolls Pritchard, about the idea of building an iron

bridge in the Severn Gorge. Pritchard went on to design

the bridge and an Act of Parliament to build a bridge

received Royal Assent in the spring of 1776.

A full account of David’s talk will be published in the

2018 BLHS Journal.

At The Coalface

Stewart Braddock Writes -

The Granville Boys were in attendance at the Broseley

Local History Society on Wednesday 5th April to give an

insight into the working lives of the modern miner and

also to explain the conditions that the miners, their

wives and children had to endure during the Victorian

period.

The presentation was well attended with about 60

members taking their seats for the meeting. The

speakers Malcolm Peel, Cliff Hewitt and Stewart

Braddock each spoke for approximately 30 minutes and

with the aid of the projector and their knowledge they

gave a very comprehensive and informative

presentation to all.

The subject of mining in the local area of Broseley was

contained in the early stage of the presentation showing

detailed slides as to the location and names of the local

mines.

The presentation took the approved route of early

exploration and of how coal was found and mined,

conditions underground, child labour and the long

hours worked that were sometimes in complete

darkness and with no health and safety measures as

such.

This was followed with an overview on transport

systems used underground from very early days when

young boys pulled the tubs of coal out, through the

period where pit ponies were used, this ceasing only in

1996 to everyone’s surprise, up to modern day

automatic skip winding.

An explanation of the dangers of volatile mine gases

and explosions was given along with escape breathing

apparatus, use of the canaries and a fine display of

miner’s lamps which were on display for the

appreciative audience.

The evening finished with a pictorial display, with

explanations, of the modern day machinery of the type

that was used by the speakers during their working lives,

the power of these cutting and loading machines was

breath-taking, some of the larger machines taking cuts

of coal nearly 40 feet thick in the Warwickshire seams.

The boys had brought a fantastic collection of

memorabilia with them and many members of the

audience took time to view these and ask questions as

to their uses.

Questions were put to the boys during and after the

presentation which they responded well to.

The Granville Boys would like to thank Broseley Local

History Society for the opportunity they were given to

share their fantastic memories and information with

them, but more importantly for the very kind donations

the audience gave totaling nearly £50 towards the

Telford Mining Memorial Fund.

Iron sculptures

The November 2016 issue of Newsletter carried a

report on the iron sculptures which had been donated to

Broseley by the Ironbridge Power Station. At that time,

only two of these had been installed while the

remaining four were still waiting to be brought up from

Ironbridge. Now, however, all six are in place around

the town and the map shows the approximate positions

of the sculptures.

These sculptures were built from scrap metal by Gerry

Foxall in the early 1980s and were donated by him to

the Ironbridge Power Station. However, upon its

closure in 2015 these had to be found a new home and

Broseley was lucky enough to be chosen as a suitable

site for them.

Their new positions, on the Pritchard Memorial plinth,

Cape Fold, Wilkinson Avenue, the library car park, All

Saints’ churchyard and Haycop Rise, the new Dark

Lane housing development, are all within easy walking

distance of the town centre and, in a move to emphasise

the town’s mining and industrial history, will form part

of the Broseley Town Trail.

While some people may regret no longer seeing the old

kibble bucket, which has for some years been on the

Memorial Plinth in the Square, this has now been

moved to the Maypole Green in Broseley Wood and

will also form part of the Town Trail.

Jan Lancaster

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Pritchard Memorial plinth

Cape Fold

Wilkinson Avenue

Library car park

All Saint’s churchyard

Haycop Rise

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Motor Racing at Coalport

This photograph in the archives of the Ironbridge Gorge

Museum Trust shows the start of a race from Coalport

Bridge (the Wood Bridge) up Coalport Road to

Broseley and is said to have taken place in 1911. The

Wellington Journal and Shrewsbury News on the 13th

May 1911 announced that the Sutton Coldfield

Automobile Club had chosen Coalport Hill as the venue

for their annual hill climb to take place on 20th May. A

large entry was expected with six classes for both cars

and motorcycles. The hill, it continued is “a most

sporting character … where some thrilling riding

should be witnessed”.

The following week on 27th May the following report

was printed:

SUTTON COALFIELD HILL CLIMB

This club held its hill-climb at Coalport Hill, near Iron-

Bridge on Saturday afternoon, the hill being situated on

a private road near the Severn, over which a toll bridge

is erected. The surface of the hill was very much cut up,

being inches deep in dust, especially at the top corner.

A little way up the hill there is an awkwardly placed

bridge, which has to be taken on the skew, and near the

summit there is an extremely acute hairpin bend, the

angle being about 120 degrees. In consequence of the

bad surface it was decided to run the motorcycle events

before the cars had made the road any worse. The

arrangements of the climb were well carried out, and

some most exciting sport was witnessed by a large

crowd. The lightweight class was won by H. V.

COLVER on a chain driven 2¾h.p. Enfield. In the class

for single cylinder touring machines H. WALDREN

(3½ Triumph) was first on time; while in the next class,

for the T.T. models, J.Woodhouse (3½ Precision) made

fastest time. The unlimited class was won by W.D.South

(7h.p. Indian), who came up the hill at tremendous

speed. There were many spills during the afternoon,

and in the lightweight class quite half the riders must

have fallen. Altogether the climb was a great success,

and much credit is due to the club.

Boxing Tournament at Broseley

Boxing during the first half of the 20th century at a local

amateur level appears to have been extremely popular

as this report from Wellington Journal and Shrewsbury

News on 3rd July 1932 illustrates.

A benefit boxing tournament was held on the Broseley

Cricket Ground on Monday before a large crowd. Each

bout was of an interesting nature, and keen interest was

taken in the six rounds exhibition between Harry Evans

of Shrewsbury and Hal Goodall of Jackfield, when

some delightful boxing was seen.

In a four rounds contest Young Dodd (Broseley) out

pointed Young Bufton (Little Wenlock) after a hard set-

to. Young Cis Hill received the referee’s decision in

what might have been one of the best fights of the

evening against young Johnson of Madeley. Both boys

warmed up to their work from the start, but were over-

anxious, and had to be spoken to by the referee at the

beginning of the second session. The second round was

a stirring one, with Johnson gaining ground, but

towards the end of the round he was disqualified for

hitting low.

A sporting bout by the Oakley Nippers earned great

ovation from the crowd, as also did the contest between

young Reeves and Norman Oakley, which ended in a

draw. A splendid contest was that between young Ernie

Jones, a local boy and young Sid Goring of Ironbridge.

This was a very fast fight, with Jones always keeping

the upper hand. He hit more solidly, and dropped

Goring for a count of five in round two. Jones received

the verdict on points after a very good fight.

Map showing the locations of the sculptures around

Broseley

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The referees were Mr. Walter Rickers (Madeley) and

Mr. HARRY EVANS (Shrewsbury). Mr. C.V. Davis was

M.C. and Mr. J. Beaman, timekeeper. The committee

and members of Broseley Cricket Club gave good

assistance in the arrangements.

The Rev. C.S. Jackson (Broseley) addressed the

spectators, and spoke of the cause for which the

tournament had been organised. Mr. Jackson said that

he hoped there would be many more tournaments

organised in Broseley, as they had an ideal place for it,

adding that any sport which brought people into the

open air for a couple of hours, and gave such enjoyment

should be encouraged.

Does anyone have photographs of any of the mentioned

pugilists or remember their achievements?

Janet Doody

Christmas Quiz Answers

It seems a long time ago now since the society

Christmas meal and the quiz on all things Shropshire

that provided the entertainment afterwards. For those of

you who were not there on the evening a copy of the

quiz questions was printed in the February edition of

Newsletter. The answers to the quiz are printed below.

How well did you do?

1. Len Murray

2. Victorian market building, now demolished

3. High Street and Fish Street

4. Decorated with flags each May (tree dressing)

5. Broseley Social Club (once a bank)

6. John Bull (Some people also said the Wrekin Giant)

7. Thomas Telford.

8. The Beagle

9. Oakengates (Some said Dawley)

10. The answer was given as Caughley Pottery. This

was also contentious as plates had similar motifs but

no bridge with figures crossing.

11. It brews its own beer

12. "To all friends round the Wrekin!"

13. Bridgnorth

14. The Iron Age hill fort

15. Broseley

16. Sir Gordon Richards

17. All Saints' Church, Wellington

18. Henry IV.

19. 38

20. William Withering

Where’s Welly?

Editor: This month I have headed downhill from

Broseley and found this interesting building. Do you

know where it is and what it was in a former life?

In the last edition of Newsletter, we were trying to

identify the poor old ramshackle house shown below.

Many of you will have guessed that it was Monewood

house, just off Ironbridge road. It can be seen through

the trees (on the left, just past the end of Dark Lane as

you head up towards the cemetery) at this time of year

but in a few weeks it will be hidden from sight for

another summer.

One of our members told me that his children had music

lessons there towards the end of the 1990s but their

teacher later sold the property and moved to

Bridgnorth Road. A search of the Shropshire County

Monewood House in spring 2017

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Council planning website shows that a planning

application (BR/99/0575) was submitted in August

1999 for the erection of a replacement dwelling. This

application was refused and no appeal was made. The

reasons for refusal were not stated.

What’s On?

Wed 24 May

Friends of Ironbridge Gorge Museum, The First

World War under the Wrekin, Martin Phillips, 7:30pm,

Glass Classroom Coalbrookdale, 01952 433522

Sun 28 May

Apley Farm Shop, Apley Bake Off, 10-4pm,

enquires@apleyfarmshop.co.uk, 01952 581002

Wed 21 June

Friends of Ironbridge Gorge Museum, AGM

followed by The Museum’s Early Years, a personal

perspective, Neil Clarke, 7:30pm, Board Room,

Coalbrookdale, 01952 433522

Sun 16 Jun

Apley Farm Shop, Classic Motor Day, 10-4pm,

enquires@apleyfarmshop.co.uk, 01952 581002

The above “What’s On?” is a taster of what’s going on

locally. Details of these meetings and more can be

found at the Wrekin Local Studies Forum website.

http://www.wlsf.org.uk/category/calendar/

Benthall Hall

Benthall Hall is short of volunteer room stewards at the

moment. The role would suit someone keen on local

history, or even just someone who likes meeting

visitors to the area.

Anyone potentially interested should contact Benthall

Hall directly by sending an email to

benthall@nationaltrust.org.uk.

People can enquire and have trial sessions without any

obligation and prior knowledge isn’t required.

Mailbox

I am researching how the limestone quarried at The

Vineyards (Wyke) was transported. Was it taken down

to the River Severn? Do you have any old maps

covering this area? I have the 1883 map and later ones

but wondered where I can find the tithe maps? Also I

am unable to find local plans lodged with the land

registry for this area. I hope you can help, Thanks,

Sally-Anne

Steve Dewhirst writes-

I think the quarries at the The Vineyards were

associated with those at Tickwood and what was called

the Wyke Limeworks. These were operated in the late

18th and early 19th century for fluxing stone for iron

furnaces in the Severn Gorge. There was a tramway

from the quarries down to the Severn. They seem to

have gone by the 1830s, presumably when all the

fluxing stone had been worked out. It is probable that

the quarries continued to be used for agricultural lime

after this date but this would have been transported by

horse drawn cart.

I have only found the tramway on two maps:

The draft 1” OS map (I think this was 1827) shows a

tramway from Tickwood towards the Severn. The

adjacent sheet does not show the continuation to the

Severn either because it had been removed when this

sheet was surveyed or the surveyor/cartographer did

Monewood House in the late 1990s

Monewood House (circled in yellow) shown on the

Broseley Town Plan

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not include it. It is not shown on the published 1830 1st

edition suggesting that it had been removed by the time

it was published.

I found a map in Lincolnshire archives from the Hawley

collection which appears to show the tramway running

towards The Vineyards. This is attached to a deed of

1800.

In 2009 John Wooldrige arranged for permission with

the owner of Tickwood Hall for us to search for the

tramway and we believe we found the route to the

Tickwood quarries. I am not sure who owns the land at

The Vineyards so I have not been able to look at the

remains on the ground to see if the route of the tramway

can be found. Two interesting things came out of the

research; the mention of a subterraneous passage

(tunnel) and an inclined plane (on the Hawley map). I

have not been able to locate either of these on the

ground.

I was just wondering if any one knows how old this

drawing is? I have done a close up to enlarge the detail

in the foreground. The development is a bit scarce, is

the wharf warehouse there? Does anyone have any

ideas what it is depicting in the foreground? It shows

the Ironbridge so presumably it must be 1779 onwards.

The Tontine is also on there and that was built in 1784

Richard Sells

Steve Dewhirst writes-

It was done by James Fittler (1758-1835) after George

Robertson (1724-88). Published Feb 1st 1788 by John

& Josiah Boydell, Cheapside London.

DISTRIBUTION OF NEWSLETTERS

Thank you to those members who have indicated that

they would be happy to have an electronic copy of the

Newsletter. If there are any other members who would

prefer it this way, please contact the membership

secretary, Janet Robinson, email:

janetc46.jr.jr@gmail.com

Those of you who would still prefer to have it in its

printed version can continue to look forward to

receiving it through the post

©Published by Broseley Local History Society

To see this Newsletter in full colour visit the

website at www.broseley.org.uk.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Chairman

Secretary

Treasurer

Membership Secretary

Programme Secretary

and Journal Editor Newsletter Editor

Publicity

Website

Email

Gillian Pope Dot Cox

Jim Cooper

Janet Robinson 26 Coalport Road

Broseley

TF12 5AZ

01952 882495 Neil Clarke

Andy Wellings Michael Pope

Jan Lancaster

Janet Doody Richard Sells

Jennie Osborn

www.broseley.org.uk

steve@broseley.org.uk

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